"If it wasn't for us you'd all be speaking German!"

@Yulianna Quite right.

@Yulianna That's exactly what I was taught.

@Yulianna the thing is.. in US people taught that US is the one who ended the war

@YukikoAmagi in Asia where the war continued for a while after German surrender that could be considered true with the dropping of the nuclear bombs.

@TheSirfurryanimalWales that's not necessary, Japan already losing their ground

@YukikoAmagi the thing is, I don't recall it being that way.

I recall being thought that we were of big aid to end it... but not the almighty ones TO end it.


I feel there was more pride in the counter attack on Japan than there was in our involvement in Europe.

@TheSirfurryanimalWales @YukikoAmagi @mark245pineapple

the whole point of my posting is that each of the three main allies contributed what they could.

it is arguable, but by no means inevitable, that, without allied air campaign, germany would have been better able to withstand soviet attacks. i believe that the might of the soviet ground forces would eventually have overcome german resistance.

and please, can everybody refer to soviet forces, not russian, as much of the red army came from non russian parts of soviet union.

@JAYS21 yes, usa was only participant whose homeland remained largely intact, with production of trained men and materiel increasing throughout war.

and in sense that usa economy survived, even thrived through war, it is fair to say that usa was the victor - if victory is measured by spoils.

@Yulianna you just boost their ego talking like that

@Yulianna just a small but important point here... Due to the destruction of the axis industries, they started up again with a clean slate and I think, this allowed them to go modern with what they built... Rather than building on what they already had...

@YukikoAmagi if saying truth boosts their ego, so be it! this is not, for me, about who wins this argument, it is about who "won" WWII - and on that, i look to history, not to ego.

@Yulianna i'm done here

@ozgirl512 yes, this is true, particularly in germany, but it was us investment that allowed this to happen, as it was us policy to use germany (west germany, then) as bulwark against westward spread of communism.

nato would protect against soviet military encroachment. well paid jobs would protect against soviet inspired communist agitation, as happened after WWI.

@YukikoAmagi ok 🤗

@Yulianna As an American who had excellent history teachers, and who studied it a ton in American literature, this is the closest to what I understood too. Make no doubt about it, without many pieces of the puzzle, this war would have been incredibly difficult to win - mainly, the UK hanging on (thank you English Channel, and as I saw in another post, Hitler changing to bomb London instead of focusing on military operations), Hitler attacking Russia, who destroyed his entire army, and the US feeding both sides with weaponry, etc (Lend-Lease Act), significant bombing operations (along with UK), and then of course troops on ground after D-Day.

Nobody in my classes was taught to believe that it was less than all 3 (plus many others who chipped in and should get credit - and anyone who fought in that war deserved real credit!).

Japanese theater was a whole different conversation.

@tj786100 thank you 🙂

@JAYS21 do you mean soviet union?

there is nohistorical evidence that stalin would ever have sued for peace, when defeating german land armies allowed red army to occupy broad swathes of eastern europe.